Price: Forever Free PRINTER-FRIENDLY Edition January 2012 - Columbia River N Scale club - Scratchbuilding a car float - Passenger car truck conversion - MRH looks at RailPro and lots more, inside ... Lance Mindheim builds Photo-laminated structures Page 1 • Jan 2012 MRH Front cover Front Cover: Lance Mindheim’s HO scene shows us how some clever photo-lamination techniques can pro- duce stunningly realistic model scenes. This is truly an MRH “Yes, it’s a model!” photo by Lance Mindheim. ISSN 2152-7423 Editorial Staff Joe D. Fugate, Publisher Charlie Comstock, Editor MRH sponsors Columnists Richard Bale, News and events John Drye, N scale Remember to tell them: “MRH sent me!” Les Halmos, Modular railroading Lew Matt, Narrow gauge and shortlines Bruce Petrarca, DCC Learn about becoming a Sponsoring Advertiser! Need something? See our Hobby Marketplace! Special Correspondents Jim Duncan, Layouts and operations Byron Henderson, Layouts and track planning Production Patty Fugate, pasteup and layout Joe Brugger, copy editing Mike Dodd, copy editing Technical Assistant Jeff Shultz Advertising Account Manager Les Halmos MRH Sponsoring Advertisers get extra benefits such as For more model railroading products, including hard-to-find logo placement and visibility with the MRH web audience items, our Hobby Marketplace is on page 56. (50,000+ in Nov 2011). Click here to get started! Page 2 • Jan 2012 MRH Masthead and Sponsors Page 3 • Jan 2012 MRH Advertisement Visit BLMA website Page 4 • Jan 2012 MRH Advertisement Visit Walthers website Page 5 • Jan 2012 MRH Advertisement Visit ExactRail website Table of Main Features contents Columns 52 First Look: RailPro system 79 Simple car card system 23 Peninsula construction! MRH expanded First Look, with video! A single card per train does it all Up the Creek by Charlie Comstock HO by Jeff Shultz All scales by Tom Driscoll 58 First Look: ESU car lighting 82 Build a railcar barge 34 Time to run trains? LED lighting for passenger cars How to build a rail barge step-by-step Getting Real by Mike Rose HO by Jeff Shultz All scales by M.C. Fujiwara 60 Photo-laminated structures 90 Columbia River N Scale club 43 Wired decoder Achieving amazing structure realism Consistent modules following a prototype installation, part 1 by Charlie Comstock DCC Impulses All scales by Lance Mindheim N by Bruce Petrarca 75 Rivarossi 4 to 6 wheel conversion Modeler’s workbench: Easy how-to 101 January Model by Jim Duncan Railroading News HO MRH News and Events by Richard Bale Other Features 113 MRH, the three-year- old toddler 8 Sharing our passion 16 MRH Q - A - T Reverse Running Editor’s Soapbox by Charlie Comstock Questions, Answers and Tips by Joe Fugate 56 Hobby Marketplace 11 MRH Staff Notes MRH is three! 115 Derailments – Humor? 14 Subscriber-only extras Bonus downloads Page 6 • Jan 2012 MRH Table of contents - Features Page 7 • Jan 2012 MRH Advertisement Visit this website EDITOR’S SOAPBOX: Sharing Our Passion Good things get better with friends ... But because this is my column, I’m However I think even the nicest look- Reader going to tell you what I think. ing, most complete, layout isn’t really About the Feedback complete unless trains are running on it. (click here) I really like building things. That’s been Editor Did you notice the plural there – trains? true since my Erector Set and Lincoln While possible, it’s definitely hard to run y the time you read this, Log days. Apparently I have a creative more than one train at a time (unless Christmas will have come and streak that won’t let me sit still. Later on you’re into automated computer train gone. Some folks like to predict that streak turned me into a software what the new year will bring, but I’m control). The easiest way to run mul- designer. Yeah, I know, you can’t really Bgoing to resist that urge. Instead, I’d tiple trains at one time is with the help “see” software, but programming is like everyone who’s reading this to of a friend or two, or 16. definitely building stuff. Eventually, the reflect on the things that make our I believe model trains and the layouts genes that lit up when I received my hobby so great. we run them on are meant for shar- first 4x4 piece of plywood with a circle ing. Sharing construction with some Some say it’s the fact that our trains of HO track on it reasserted themselves trusted friends. Sharing operation with move. Others say it’s because of all and I started building “serious” model “the gang.” Sharing ideas with whoever the skills you pick up while building railroad layouts. will listen in the basement, down at the layouts. Yet more like the creativity Having a dad who showed me how to club, at the local hobby shop, or even Charlie Comstock has been a involved. Still others are sure the fel- run the tools in his shop undoubtedly (gasp) on a model railroad forum. regular columnist, author, and editor lowship we get with other modelers is helped me learn the necessary wood of Model Railroad Hobbyist what makes it great. Getting together with like-minded Magazine since its inception. working skills, and all the Heathkits people (also known as train nuts, in our All of these are great reasons why (remember those?) I built as a young case) is really a great way to use our To learn more about Charlie, model railroading is a way cool hobby. teen helped with wiring. hobby time. Notice, I’m not suggesting click here. Page 8 • Jan 2012 MRH Editorial, page 1 disappearing into the basement and I dare you to reach out a little. And if abandoning your wife, children, or you feel like it, post your results on household responsibilities! the forum. When talking to hobby But there’s another dimension. We tend to share our hobby mostly with train believers. “I believe I’ll go over to Fred’s vendors, please remember house and see how he’s doing on that turntable installation” or “I believe I’ll give Joe a call and ask for help with gap- to mention MRH. ping a double return loop.” What happens when we go beyond our circle of “believer” friends and ven- ture out into the great un-trained (pun intended) masses? Is there a kid you know in the neighborhood? Invite him (or her) over to see the trains. Don’t restrict “kid” to the under-16 crowd either – I’ve known many who were much closer to the century mark. Sharing can be as simple as “Ya wanna take a look-see at my model trains?” to “My club is sponsoring a day of layout tours and clinics on model railroading. I’d love to have some company?” Or “I’m one of those nut case adults that still plays with toy trains. I’m hav- ing a dozen guys over tonight to run my model railroad like it was the real thing. I have it on good authority that every- one has had their rabies shot and taken a shower recently. Why don’t you come along and see what makes model rail- roading great?” Who knows, you might meet a great new friend, introduce someone to a wonderful hobby, or just add some fun to an otherwise unremarkable day. Page 9 • Jan 2012 MRH Editorial, page 2 Visit Dallas MW website Visit Con-Cor website Page 10 • Jan 2012 MRH Advertisement Visit Fast Tracks website Notes from the Did television eliminate radio? No. days favors digital, and as the mobile Have DVDs eliminated movie the- Internet gains momentum, any aters? No. remaining barriers to consuming digi- tal media are coming down. MRH Staff In both examples, the new media form greatly altered the market and For example, a common complaint how media is produced, but the new MRH turns 3, Lew Matt on the modeling forums against MRH medium did not eliminate the old one. update, Survey Reminder, is “I can’t read it in my easy chair, in Standard or Embedded? bed, or in the bathroom. I also can’t There’s no question the econom- read it when I’m on the go.” Figure 1: Reading MRH on an ics of paper publishing keep get- Reader ting tougher. Just look at the recent iPad and an iPhone. You can also Well, I can read MRH in my easy chair, Feedback demise of Model Railroad News. (click here) read MRH quite well on the new in bed, in the bathroom, and on the Amazon Kindle Fire (not shown). Paper will continue in some cases, but go. In fact, I can take the entire MRH been and where we see hobby pub- the scope and breadth will be forever collection since we started in 2009 MRH gets three candles lishing going. altered as digital media become ever with me – it’s at my fingertips! more accessible by individuals. Model Railroad Hobbyist is three Let’s get one question settled imme- I do this using my iPad. I can do this years old! It’s appropriate we stop diately. Do we see paper publishing I don’t think anyone would question on our $199 Kindle Fire. I can even and take a look at where we’ve going away? No. the economics of publishing these read MRH on my iPhone! ADVERTISEMENT Page 11 • Jan 2012 MRH MRH Staff Notes, page 1 Visit Southern Digital website MRH is about giving you instant access recently with acute liver failure, which By not embedding the media in the to hobby resources.